mgo.licio.us

"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

Paterno biography due out, partial excerpts from last days at PSU

GQ has a fairly lengthy excerpt of a new biography on Joe Paterno in their September issue. Currently, they're publishing part of it online and I found it interesting, if only because it shows some actual emotion from Paterno. Now, the emotion shared in this small excerpt is still emotion about Joe Paterno, but I can start to see where he may have realized the gravity of his inaction a decade earlier.

Here's the link. They have it broken into three paragraphs, and I'll blockquote one from the day following his firing below.

On Thursday, Paterno met with his coaches at his house. He sobbed uncontrollably. This was his bad day. Later, one of his former captains, Brandon Short, stopped by the house. When Brandon asked, "How are you doing, Coach?" Paterno answered, "I'm okay," but the last syllable was shaky, muffled by crying, and then he broke down and said, "I don't know what I'm going to do with myself." Nobody knew how to handle such emotion. Joe had always seemed invulnerable. On Thursday, though, he cried continually. "My name," he told Jay, "I have spent my whole life trying to make that name mean something. And now it's gone."

But the last images I have of Paterno are ones of him leading "We are..." cheers on his front lawn while his program was being rocked to its core and a number of sexual abuse victims were probably worrying about having to come forward.

At least this seems like he had some comprehension of how serious the situation was, which is more than we've seen from anyone named Paterno before or since.

He had over a decade to show that his name meant something, by turning Sandusky in. It would have damaged his program in the short run, but ultimately would have reflected positively on him. That he showed remorse after the coverup unraveled doesn't say a whole lot.

I don't know if he showed any remorse or not, and I'd probably guess that between some combination of age, denial and twisted logic that he never got around to feeling actual remorse. All I said was "realize the gravity of the situation", which seems reasonable based on this short quote.

That almost makes him seem like he's out of touch... "my name..." forget that, he failed those kids. hopefully there are some quotes to the extent of "I can't believe this was happening here and I failed to protect those kids..."

Is this biography going to end up being nothing more than an attempt to get sympathy from the public for JoePa and the position he was in? If so, I'm not buying a word of it.

And even if (BIG IF) he actually broke down and said those words, I still don't feel a bit of sympathy for him or his family. If he worked his whole life to make his name mean something, it should have been automatic pilot for him to turn Sandusky's ass in right away.

You don't cover up crimes this serious for as long as JoePa did and then cry about your image taking a hit during your final days. I would think the 16 grandchildren he had would make this a no-brainer. But that's just me.

I better not say anything more or else the Paterno family might try and sue me.

"wolverinehistorian, for someone so dedicated and seemingly level headed, his grudges are monumental." ~ triangle_M

Posnanski spent the better part of the last 2 years in Happy Valley with Paterno and the biography was largely written before any of this scandal came out. I am sure there were some edits made after things broke, but I'm fairly certain it was printed before the end of the Sandusky trial.

In short, I wouldn't expect much damnation of Paterno, but in the author's defense, it should be noted his book was written while he (and most of the rest of us) were being fooled. I feel badly for Posnanski, I mean, can you imagine spending 2 years working on something, being away from your wife and kids for large portions of time to do it, and then finding out at the very end that it was all a sham (not your work, but the subject). That's a kick in the gnads

No one's life, liberty, or property are safe when the Legislature is in session

It seems much too early to publish this. The Freeh report has been out for a month and there will be more investigations to come. Not to mention that feelings are pretty raw on all sides. This comes off like an attempt to make a quick buck off the scandal.

"Elia shook his head again. "It began in 2004," he whispered, referring to an old clash Paterno had with [university president Graham] Spanier. "The board started to turn. We don't have anybody on the board now" - from one of the excerpted paragraphs

This is something I found interesting too only because I didn't know how far back the slide in relations between Paterno and the Board Of Trustees went. Granted, at this point, there was no Freeh Report which pointed to the Board being essentially a rubber stamp, but as I recall, the Board vote was unanimous to fire him in November, so even if someone was there for outreach, they didn't want him as head coach of the team under those circumstances (the details of which turned out to be horrific, of course).

Like others, I was turned off even further by the statement he made in this excerpt about his name and this being apparently the primary concern, for it seems that, in the end - and maybe age played a role - Joe Paterno and Penn State football finally became the same thing in his mind. It may very well have been an ego-crushing moment to realize that he was merely an employee of the university.

I have to wonder if this is a better, more rounded book, if published a year or two from now though. If it is coming out later this month, I have to think that it may not touch on some very important revelations in the story to date.

"Funny isn't it, how naughty dentists always make that one fatal mistake."

The final chapters on Paterno won't be written for a while. At some point, one of the other players involved in the coverup may talk and we will really know what went down. Assuming there are legs to the story that the FB I/USPS are doing an investigation, the biography may be in need of significant revision.

...because his heart wouldn't let him coach anymore. If he was healthy he would've coached another 10 years or so, imo. And if the Lloyd/Parkinson's rumors are true, that would explain some things, too. I have come to believe that a person doesn't ascend to these types of positions without a very healthy ego, and such an ego makes it difficult to walk away.

Bo also mentioned in his book Michigan Memories that he had a sense after the 1989 Ohio game that it was time to move on. I don't know if his health that all that decisive of a factor; he had the second heart attack at the end of the 1987 season and still coached two years beyond that.

I wonder...it has been said that this was part of an organized crime child sex ring. I have wondered if it's at all possible that people did report some things but that these people were either bought or in on it. Or is it possible that JoePa reported it and was told to STFU because "we will do X if you say anything."

What Im getting at is that this whole thing is a hell of a lot deeper than we may ever know. That being said, out of context, his whole "protect my legacy" comment is still very pathetic.

This is a press conference! The last thing I want to do is answer a lot of questions!

JP did not have to worry about paying his bills, or keeping his legacy. He could have stood on the president's desk with ESPN holding on his cell phone and dictated terms when this happened. JP had no problems if he spoke up publicly, unless he was already involved in some fashion.

I agree 100% with your second statement, the rest of the roaches have yet to be flushed out into the light of day.

This reminds me of their Board member who was mad they weren't notified in advance of the charges because, if they were, they could have "avoided this mess."

It's the kind of thing that...look, if you really think about their situation, it becomes understandable. Most people would feel the same wa in their shoes. (Especially Paterno's family - every single person here would do exactly what they've done, and you're lying if you claim otherwise) But nobody's going to think about that, and comments like that just look and sound very bad. But either way, I really doubt that's the only thing he said that day. Too bad we can't reserve judgment until we read more.

Not that any of it will change the fact that he enabled child rape for at least a decade...